


Strike-Slip Fault

by SilverValkyrie



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied Tegan/Nyssa - Freeform, Let Tegan Say Fuck, Team as Family, i don’t really care about continuity tbh i just really wanted to write angry tegan, post-Earthshock, screw canon we’re going to sort out our emotions before anything else, well kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-16 15:43:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20858693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverValkyrie/pseuds/SilverValkyrie
Summary: Sometimes we say things we don’t actually mean, even to those we love.





	Strike-Slip Fault

**Author's Note:**

> Tegan is my absolute favorite and I figured writing her would be fun (it was), but this turned into something pretty personal, as it’s coming from my own experience with losing a friend in a very traumatic way. That said, Tegan’s a complex lady (and let it be known that I LOVE complex female characters), so perhaps she might be a little darker of a character here than in canon.

Crawling his way out from under the TARDIS’s center console, the Doctor thinks he finally knows which exact part of the complex machine had been malfunctioning ever since departing Earth’s orbit, where they had just barely claimed a victory (Pyrrhic may it be) over the Cybermen. He knows there’s a man– an old friend of his, in fact– on a Titanian research colony in the year 2505, and if he could _just_ steer the TARDIS toward that particular direction in spacetime…

He leans on the console, quiet in thought for a moment, before he perks up with an inkling of an idea. If he could get Nyssa’s help, they could easily make it and repair the too-often-unreliable navigational systems. Ah, but it’s likely the girls would still be asleep. They’d gone to bed late, but that’s no matter. Nyssa would be happy to help the Doctor no matter what. Tegan, on the other hand… well, Tegan was normally quite grumpy, it’s not like waking her could make _that_ particular quality of hers much worse… at least, he hoped.

The Doctor sets the faulty navigational device towards what he hopes is Titan, and puts his hands on his hips, his mind set with his plan.

“Adric,” he says. “Would you please go and wake the girls–”

Oh.

There is a deafening silence, aside from the Doctor’s long, heavy sigh. He allows himself a moment of tremulous repose, closing his eyes and simply shaking his head.

There is no Adric. Not anymore.

Adric, the stowaway kid, the young mathematical genius, full of curiosity that more often than not got him and the others into trouble– the boy he’d come to accept as a sort of son–

No. No, the Doctor will not allow his thoughts to go there. He stands up fully, and calmly makes his way out of the console room and towards the girls’ room.

He stops silent outside the door, listening for a moment. He hears a soft voice– Nyssa’s, most likely– and another voice replies, strained and clearly upset– Tegan’s, without a doubt. He hates to interrupt, but he in fact hadn’t even expected them to be awake, and he could really use Nyssa’s expertise…

He knocks on the door three times, and he hears Nyssa’s muffled voice, then the patter of bare feet on the floor, and finally, Nyssa opens the door.

She looks… haggard, the Doctor thinks, but only haggard in a very ‘Nyssa’ sort of way, still retaining that quiet strength and elegant poise that he knows her to have. All those brown curls of hers are loose– her hair isn’t fixed up or pinned back, and she’s still in her nightclothes. She looks up at the Doctor with her lips pursed, her calm eyes still soft on the surface but with obvious steel behind them, as if to say, ‘you’re interrupting, so make it quick.’

“Ah, Nyssa,” the Doctor stammers out. “I, uh– I wasn’t quite sure if you were awake, but I’ve set a tentative course for Titan, there’s a man there who can help us repair our navigational systems, and I was wondering if perhaps I could get your help in the control room–”

Nyssa is still looking up at him in the same way as before he began speaking, not saying a word. The Doctor shifts uncomfortably under her gaze, and he is reminded now that Nyssa was once nobility on her home planet.

He squirms under this royal scrutiny, and glances over Nyssa’s shoulder at Tegan.

Tegan’s expression is somber, her lower lip is trembling and she’s staring at her feet outstretched before her. Her hands are clenching the bedsheets she’s sat upon, and it’s clear to the Doctor that she’s trying her absolute hardest not to start sobbing right in front of him. Not to say that Tegan was never furtive with her emotions– quite the opposite, in fact– but the Doctor knows this is something personal, something she blames _him_ for– and oh heavens, now she’s looking directly at him.

Tegan’s gaze has slowly lifted from the floor to meet the Doctor’s, and it’s clear that his bristly companion is now absolutely seething. Her eyes are red and puffy, there are tear stains on her cheeks, and the Doctor forces himself to not visibly reel back from the intensity of Tegan’s glare.

“Doctor,” comes Nyssa’s voice, even-toned and exactly the opposite of what he expected to hear while looking at Tegan. “Now isn’t a very good time. I’m sorry. I do hope my help isn’t absolutely necessary?”

The Doctor can’t tear his eyes from Tegan. She slowly begins to rise, and he takes a small step back when she starts to stalk towards him behind Nyssa’s back.

“N-no. Not at all. It’s– I’ll leave you two be,” he says quickly, but Tegan is suddenly at his throat, and Nyssa rushes to pull Tegan back but her grip is shaken off when she tries to grab Tegan’s shoulders.

“Doctor.” Tegan’s voice is dripping with some sort of malice, and the Doctor thinks now, more than ever, he’s genuinely afraid of his friend. “_Doctor_,” she repeats. Her voice is measured, even. She’s not screaming her head off at him like she normally would. And _that_, he decides, is what terrifies him most.

“You are a _Time_ Lord, Doctor. You galavant around the universe in your bloody blue space box that can go anywhere and any-when you want and yet you _still_ refuse to go back in time and rescue our poor friend.”

“Tegan,” Nyssa warns, her voice quiet in an attempt to be the mediator.

“_Nyssa_,” Tegan echoes, but the tone of her voice is more akin to a dog giving a warning bark before it bites.

Nyssa’s eyebrows shoot up, as if she’s not about to let Tegan get away with speaking to her with an attitude like that, but she instead relents and takes a step back, silently giving Tegan the floor.

“Doctor, you have some _nerve_.” Tegan has him backed against the wall now, and he thinks that she looks six feet tall like this even without her heels. “You’re here, coming to tell us you’re popping out for a nice visit to Titan as if nothing ever happened. You’re asking Nyssa for help now of all times– hell, you won’t even let us _mourn_ Adric!”

Her voice cracks as she says his name. She swallows a sob, and she steels herself once again, not allowing the Doctor even a split second to escape.

“You think that just because you’ve seen death before that everyone else around you can also just get up and shake it off like it’s nothing. Damn it, if I didn’t already know that you’ve got two beating hearts, I’d suspect that there’s not even one in there, Doctor.”

Tegan is openly crying now, and the tension is so palpable that even Nyssa looks faintly ill just watching them.

“_Shit_.” Tegan blinks tears away, sucks in a shudder of a breath, and returns her wrathful gaze to the Doctor.

“Your morals are something else, Doctor,” she spits. “You and your bloody time travel laws! Adric was– he was just a _child!_ He had a whole life to live! And he died alone on some fucking backwater space vessel! I’ve got half a mind to stage a mutiny and force you to go back, since you’re so fucking _flippant_ about bloodshed and death–!”

“Tegan, that’s _enough!”_

Nyssa’s arms come up under Tegan’s and lock her in place, Tegan’s back pressed firmly against Nyssa’s front. She gives a forceful grunt and pulls Tegan away, giving the Doctor room to escape. The Doctor notes that he should thank Nyssa later– the tiny Trakenite is clearly packing more muscle than she lets on– and he promptly takes his leave. He gives a quick look back at Nyssa, his face apologetic (hers is the same), and he turns the corner where he stops. He remains there for a moment, out of sight but not out of earshot.

He hears Tegan let out a heavy sob, and the sound of rustling accompanied by the slap of bare hands on the cold floor are followed by a sharp, Australian-flavored “_Fuck!_”

The Doctor peeks around the corner and sees that Tegan has fallen to her knees, absolutely heaving and sobbing and Nyssa is there on the ground with her, cradling her, holding her close like she’s the only thing keeping the poor woman from completely losing it (and she might very well be). Nyssa is not immune to the tragedy– she too is crying, albeit silently, but Tegan doesn’t notice.

Tegan is wracked with grief for Adric, with guilt– for what she’d just said and done– and with perhaps other deep anxieties that lie as of yet unknowable even to her.

The Doctor often forgets that Tegan is the only human in the TARDIS; how out of place she must feel at times. She’s become very close with Nyssa, but even so… Tegan has done remarkably well for someone quite literally abducted by aliens. For her to eventually break like this had not gone completely unforeseen.

The Doctor loves humans, he loves the planet Earth, and because of that, eventually– not today, nor tomorrow, but definitely in the coming days– he will ask Tegan if she still wishes to meander through the cosmos, or if she would like to be taken home at once. The Doctor may or may not have been taking his time on purpose returning Tegan to Heathrow, but if he has been doing it on purpose then it was because he’d grown fond of Tegan as a friend and an ally. Sometimes, the Doctor had to admit that it was difficult for him to accept change, and to see her go would be a pity. Has he done the right thing? No, certainly not. Would Tegan be upset with him if she knew? Perhaps, outwardly. But he and Nyssa might not _fully_ believe that Tegan would be completely and wholeheartedly regretful about her journey in the TARDIS. This– Adric’s death– has been hard on all of them, but not all of their times together have been bad.

The Doctor spares another glance around the corner, as Tegan has fallen silent now, and he sees Nyssa press her lips gently against Tegan’s cheek. Nyssa pulls away slowly and moves so their foreheads are touching. Her hands are delicate, and she smooths over Tegan’s neck and shoulder with her right hand while still holding her with the left.

The Doctor smiles to himself, a little embarrassed that he’s probably seen too much, and walks away. Clearly, they were closer than he’d realized. And, more importantly, Tegan had someone to lean on who wasn’t him. It’s not that he doesn’t get along with Tegan, but Nyssa’s always been miles better with emotional support than him. Nyssa might even still be grieving the loss of her own family, and her whole planet, even if the Doctor hasn’t seen her outwardly project her grieving process. Nyssa was quiet by nature, it was likely that she was just a more private person.

It was no matter to the Doctor that Tegan had shouted at him; threatened him. Not really, anyway. The Doctor knows that everyone experiences grief in their own way, and Tegan’s way just happened to be very ‘Tegan.’ There were a thousand reasons he couldn’t just travel back in time and save Adric, continuity included, but now’s not the time to explain to her the rules of altering history and such. For now, the Doctor decides on his way back to the control room, he will try and get them to Titan, he will meet with his friend on the research base and give Tegan and Nyssa the space that they need. He’ll sort things out with Tegan later. One step at a time, he reminds himself.

One step at a time.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all. So I grew up watching Classic Who with my mom, who herself grew up watching it during its original airing on TV. The show is very near and dear to me, so I hope you at least enjoyed. Constructive criticism is welcome.
> 
> Additionally, ‘strike-slip fault’ refers to a type of earthquake that has two different types, but the difference in type is only dependent on your perspective to the quake. Apparently. I’m not a geologist.


End file.
